Top 10: Australian Food News Briefs

The Vietnamese government has passed a ruling approving a 350% rise in penalties for food safety violations.

2. Walmart will require all fresh, leafy greens suppliers to implement digital, end-to-end traceability of their products using blockchain by September of next year. IBM, which began testing its blockchain services with Walmart, Kroger and other food companies last year, will provide the software and support for suppliers.

3. Keurig Dr Pepper has announced it will buy premium water brand CORE Nutrition for $525 million. The acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of the year, will include CORE Hydration, a nutrient-enhanced bottled water, and CORE Organic, a USDA-certified fruit-enhanced “hydration” beverage.

4. One out of every five US shoppers who recently switched grocery stores are loyal to Aldi, Bloomberg reported, citing a report by Morgan Stanley. According to the firm, the German discount grocer is getting more new shoppers than Costco, Target, Kroger and Amazon.

5. Walmart recently submitted plans to open a grocery pickup-only store at a former supermarket site outside Chicago. The standalone facility will be called Walmart Pickup, according to the Chicago Tribune, and is expected to be the company’s largest pickup-only site.

6. Australia’s Commonwealth-managed fisheries have been given a tick of sustainability with no fisheries subject to overfishing for the fifth consecutive year, according to the ​“Fisheries status reports 2018”​ released by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics.

7. Plant-based food company Innovopro has developed a patented method to process chickpea protein that, chief technical officer Nitzan Ben Chaim says, means the company can offer a highly functional alternative to the alt proteins currently dominating the market.

8. Japanese eateries are expanding in Indonesia as the appetite for beef rises among south-east Asia’s most populous country’s growing middle class. In 2016, Indonesia’s beef consumption was 1.84kg per capita (population 261 million), up from 1.45kg a decade earlier, according to business research firm Statista. By 2020, that figure is expected to rise to 1.96kg per capita, and by 2025, to 2.13kg per capita.

9. Vegan food company The Fry Family Food Co’s new range of chilled meat-alternatives are set to appear in 500 Sainsbury’s stores, as vegan-friendly launches continue to hit supermarket shelves.

10. The US Food and Drug Administration is asking the American public to comment about how it uses plant-based dairy alternatives and how it understands the meaning of terms such as “milk” and “cheese” on products not made with conventional dairy.